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Topic: Can Blind People Keep Bees? (Read 2345 times)

I received this e-mail today after speaking with this fellow on the phone today. What are your thoughts?

"I spoke with you Thursday morning about wild honey bees in a trailer. I wanted to ask a question. In the future I plan to have a school for blind, deaf, and disabled kids and adults here on this site. I am sure deaf people can be bee handlers, but what are your thoughts about blind kids and adults handling bee hives. Can blind people also rob hives too?"

Do you know someone deaf or blind that keeps bees? Your thoughts and ideas are appreciated!

One possible fun way to buddy up if no beeks are locally available would be teaching the blind person to manipulate the hives and take photos of hive, ground in front and both sides of frames and sending them to someone to consult with them. Would take some thinking about how to best do that but possible in my estimation.

Wow, I never gave it any thought. I suppose the hearing impaired can enjoy beekeeping as much as anyone, as for the visually impaired folks, they would certainly need a buddy and they certainly would enjoy the buzzing :-D

WANTED -----!Professor R.C. Richards, Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind,201 Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh 13, wishes to hear from blind beekeepers,or from those who know them. He is trying to find occupations for his blind and partially sighted boys. Professor Richards has kept bees himself.

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I wonder if he got any replies ?

Bee_Bop

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" If Your not part of the genetic solution of breeding mite-free bees, then You're part of the problem "

I live in a town with many blind and deaf people. We have the AIDB, Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, as well as Industries for the Blind and the Helen Keller School in Talladaga. I have learned that blind and deaf people can find a way to do most anything they really want to do.

I remember as a kid riding up into the Smokies to get sourwood honey from a blind bee keeper. It was quite a long time ago, and I don't remember much about it except his house looked like the one Snuffy Smith lives in, his yard was full of bee hives and tall weeds, and he just looked like a regular old man but with his eyes closed. Funny what you remember from your childhood.

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Samuel Clemens

I received this e-mail today after speaking with this fellow on the phone today. What are your thoughts?

"I spoke with you Thursday morning about wild honey bees in a trailer. I wanted to ask a question. In the future I plan to have a school for blind, deaf, and disabled kids and adults here on this site. I am sure deaf people can be bee handlers, but what are your thoughts about blind kids and adults handling bee hives. Can blind people also rob hives too?"

Do you know someone deaf or blind that keeps bees? Your thoughts and ideas are appreciated!

...JP

You try it for a few months with your eyes shut and you tell me ?

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Acts2:37: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40: And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation

There's no question that the blind and visually impaired can adapt to sightlessness to perform many tasks that, for sighted people, may seem impossible. Over my years as a toolmaker, I've experienced many instances of blind and visually impaired machinists who were productive and fullfilled in their work. However, there were definitely special accomodations that needed to be made in the equipment and work setting. Buddy system an imperative to start, IMO!

This would be a great project for a club, and a fullfilling experience for any individual who wanted to take it on!

we all need mentors. if there were someone to check the hives from time to time for disease, etc. why not?

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I saw a clip on You Tube or on t.v. There was a blind Aussie beekeeper and it was amazing to watch him work his bees. Someone drove him to his hives but once he got them open, he found the queen the use of his hearing. He used his since of touch to find brood. I have to go on the hunt for that, it was something to see.

Marc

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" Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get"

Yeah, I thought it an interesting topic. I emailed him with my thoughts, which pretty much paralleled everyone else's thoughts on here. Agreed the biggest challenge would be for blind people.

Here's his response: "It's a way off before I get this school started. I was thinking of teaming blind with deaf persons to work together. I'm sure they will be able to do so much. It won't be as easy as a person with all abilities, but with team work I bet they can do it just as well."

Certainly there are functions they could do fine at. Some, like finding a queen, would be difficult, but perhaps not impossible. You could shake the whole hive through an excluder...

Blind people use tactile senses much more than sighted individuals as it is, so I would assume they should be able to learn to recognize worker, drone brood, queen cells,(supersedure, swarm cells) queen cups, capped, and uncapped honey, etc...

This subject almost makes me want to try it with my eyes closed...

Almost.

Its amazing what we can do when we decide to. Who would have ever thought, a millionaire blind beekeeper.

We all need mentors and I mentor A 10 old year boy in about 1980 (hearing impaired) He got lots of help form his mom.

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

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"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/